


Fish Nets

by Canadiantardis



Series: Cana's Bad Things Happen Bingo [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Almost kidnapping in a Finding Nemo kinda way, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, But humans dont know this, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Light Angst, MerMay, Mermaid Pidge | Katie Holt, Mild Language, One Shot, Selkie Lance (Voltron), Selkie child character, Somewhat, mermaid allura, mermaid au, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: “Careful.” He called to her. It had taken some time to learn how to speak underwater, but after a decade, his mouth had gotten used to the new language, just like it had for the human languages. “Don’t swim off too far, sweetheart.”“I won’t, Papa!” Lory trilled back, swimming into the middle of the school without too much difficulty as Lance watched with a chuckle.He kept an eye around the area as the school of fish swam along with his daughter in the thick of it, when he noticed something moving from above, and it was moving fast.“Lory!” He shouted, forgetting himself as he used English. The word didn’t travel very far over the burst of bubbles that came out of his mouth.//Somewhat a sequel to "A Treasure from the Deep"
Relationships: Lance/Pidge | Katie Holt
Series: Cana's Bad Things Happen Bingo [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674190
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Fish Nets

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, this had been a prompt I wanted to write for a while, and it's perfect for the last day of MerMay~ The prompt was "Trapped in a Net"  
> If you hadn't read my other mer-fic, "A Treasure from the Deep" I would suggest you do! I don't think you'll be very confused with this one-shot if you hadn't, but you'll understand more about the world if you had~

Being a parent had been something Lance had been waiting for so long, though, as he swam behind his daughter as she interacted with every single fish that was within arms reach, he would not have expected this.

At three years old, Lorelei Star was about half the length of his tail and just as much of a handful as any toddler Lance had been around on the surface, although she was much more slippery to get his hands on, it was impressive he and Katie hadn’t lost her during the night when they were asleep. Then again, if he had to guess, he would think she loved the cuddles more than she was curious about the world.

He smiled when he heard the clicking giggle as Lory swam in circles around a large fish. The fish seemed to be okay with the tiny selkie, but Lance had to keep his distance as they tended to scatter in his presence. Might be because he didn’t look as fishy as his daughter.

“Careful.” He called to her. It had taken some time to learn how to speak underwater, but after a decade, his mouth had gotten used to the new language, just like it had for the human languages. “Don’t swim off too far, sweetheart.”

“I won’t, Papa!” Lory trilled back, swimming into the middle of the school without too much difficulty as Lance watched with a chuckle.

He kept an eye around the area as the school of fish swam along with his daughter in the thick of it, when he noticed something moving from above, and it was moving fast.

_“Lory!”_ He shouted, forgetting himself as he used English. The word didn’t travel very far over the burst of bubbles that came out of his mouth.

The thing was descending fast upon the school of fish and his daughter and he did the one thing he could do. With a strong thrust of his tail, he swam as fast as he could towards his daughter, his eyes snapping from where she was, oblivious to the threat, and whatever large thing was descending over them.

He reached her just as the thing - a net, he realized as it tangled around him and Lory and the school as they all freaked out and tried to get out - encircled a large portion of the school, including himself and his daughter. Lory screamed, a piercing call that would have shattered Lance’s hearing if he hadn’t been used to it. Both let out distress calls, Lance praying one of the hunters had been close enough, as the net began moving up.

_“Shit.”_ He whispered in English, the word a burst of angry bubbles, glad they hadn’t started teaching Lory the human languages just yet - they hadn’t brought her to the surface except when she had been a few months old to show off to Hunk and Shay and his family - so, if they made it out of the net, he was safe from Katie’s maternal wrath of swearing in front of their child.

He held her close, looking around as the net was pulled up and up and up, shushing her in the hopes of calming her. The water around them lightened the higher they got and he had an idea.

“Star-fish, you know how to change, right? We’ve practiced a couple times.” He said in a quick few clicks, holding her close. She looked close to tears, even if the ocean would take them away before she could really shed them. “Shh, shh, it’s okay, I have a plan, we’ll be alright and see Mama soon.”

It took some time, precious time neither of them really had as they were brought closer and closer to the surface. Lance saw the underside of the boat and started to shed his tail. He had to encourage Lory to do the same before holding her breath. When either selkie shifted, they lost the ability to breathe underwater. He luckily paced it the two would only have to hold their breath for under a minute before they broke the surface. Both gulped in air before Lory started clicking wildly, kicking her legs. Lance simply held her tightly to his chest as he heard the humans working on deck start shouting.

“There’s something in there! Get it on board! What is that?” Voice after voice and Lance was relieved they were speaking English.

“Help!” He rasped, forcing himself to cough and grab both his and Lory’s tail. They’d need them if they can get off the boat quickly enough, and he was happy their tails turned more into blue and teal cloaks than empty fish tails. “You almost,” he coughed and doubled over, protectively holding Lory who clicked in fear, “you almost killed us!”

“Shit, what the hell?!” Several humans shouted, and the net was dropped into the middle of the boat. “What are you doing in the middle of the god-damned ocean?!”

“Is that a kid?” The effect of Lory’s presence brought utter chaos amongst the humans.

They hurried to undo the net and pulled Lance and Lory out. Lory freaked out, crying so hard she couldn’t speak anymore.

“We were just swimming a bit away from our boat and got caught.” Lance coughed, holding the toddler and wrapped his tail around the two of them, having to be careful not to shift back.

“Where’s your boat? We’ll drop you off.” A gruff man offered.

Lance shook his head, looking around for the best…  _ there. _ “We’ll be okay. Gotta go!”

And he booked it. With Lory in one hand, and their tails in his other, he forced his legs to sprint as fast as he could, dodging all the humans to get to the edge and leaped over, covering Lory’s mouth before they hit the water.

“Change back!” He clicked when they were underwater, giving her her tail. The water shimmered around her as he swam, still human, until they were a couple feet deep before he put his own tail back on, knowing the water shimmered more with him than his daughter. It took a bit of time before he was back in his selkie form, but once he was, he kept Lory to his chest as he dove down.

As they went further down, Lance called out to anyone they could reach. It didn’t come to any surprise when he heard Katie’s distressed call returned to him. The two called to one another before they finally met up and she looked ready to break down.

“What happened!?” She demanded, as Lory wiggled out of Lance’s arms to shoot herself into Katie’s arms.

“Net, but we got out fine.” Lance soothed, swimming over to his mate and cupped her face. “We’re okay, they didn’t see a thing, and they can’t get down this far with what they had on the boat.”

“Mamaaaa.” Lory cried, her call high and distressed. Katie held her tightly, practically bundling the little selkie in her arms and clicked softly into her dark hair

“How did this happen.” She demanded, her words no longer attempting to sound like a question.

“Lory wanted to see the school. Fishers decided to go after the same school and we got caught up in it.” Lance explained quickly, pulling himself close to her and pressed their foreheads together.

Katie deflated, clicking soothingly to their daughter before she pulled herself away from Lance to head back.

“Allura heard your calls, before it disappeared around here, we were just about to start getting more people to start searching around.” She said as they swam together, and Lance slipped a hand to hold onto her upper arm as they went. “She should have heard your calls again, so they may have stopped the search, hopefully.”

“Hopefully. Sorry we worried you.” Lance apologized.

Katie sighed. “She’s really just like me, huh? Should have seen this coming.” She let out a toneless laugh and shook her head.

“Hey, we’re both fine. She’s just a bit spooked, but I got her out of there before anyone could guess what we were.” Lance soothed as well as he could. He had a feeling his mate wasn’t about to calm down any time soon, but he could remind her they were all fine. It didn’t go the way their first meeting had gone.

They reached the edge of the village, quiet before they saw a pink blur set upon them. Allura was quick to hug the small family, clicking too fast for Lance to translate in his head, but he understood the tone. Worry, relief, and concern.

“We’re okay, Allura, promise!” Lance said, the same time as Katie clicked wordlessly. “A minor fright, that was it.”

Allura sighed, her body relaxing. “That’s good to hear.” She spoke slower now.

“Thank you for being the one closest to us.” He made sure to put as much gratefulness as he could in his words.

“Of course.” Allura sounded like she wished to say something else, but stopped herself. She looked at the three of them before saying she had to tell the others they were safe.

The small family headed to their home, the one they shared with the rest of Katie’s family. It was empty for now, with Katie’s parents and brother working around the village. They had time to fully relax now that the scare was fully over. During the swim over to the home, Lory had seemed to have fallen asleep, the tight hold she had around Katie relaxing a bit.

“Take her to bed, I think she needs it after the unlucky adventure we had.” Lance clicked softly. “I’ll join in a bit.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [ LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:  
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